With all of the baking going on in these parts, I hadn’t yet gotten around to using up a jar of dulce de leche a friend brought me from Argentina earlier this year. In a rare moment of having no sweets in the house, I whipped up this galette to bring to a little Friendsgiving gathering at my upstairs neighbors’.

At least, I hoped it would be friendly. I was a bit hesitant about this get together as I’ve rarely exchanged words with these neighbors except in the following instances:

That time I met their French bulldog puppy in the hallway.

That time I asked them to turn down their music.

That time I left a note under their door offering support to the woman after we overheard a particularly loud screaming match wherein the man stormed out of the building after the woman had threatened suicide. As a response to the note, the woman sent me a text explaining that it was not she who was screaming, since her husband had been gone since 6 that morning, but rather it was the neighbors next door to them, who allegedly fight all the time.

I’m sure all of our neighbors are privy to our occasional outbursts, and probably worse. Our building is old, with no soundproofing, and we can hear our neighbors above and below us if they sneeze or laugh. I shudder to think what they hear from us; they probably think we’re these people.

Expecting a bit of awkwardness, I came armed with:

wine

cheese

fancy crackers

dessert

I hoped that these offerings would say, “I’m sorry I lose my shit sometimes and that you probably fear me. BTW, can you feed my cat when we’re away next week? Also, what do you drop on our ceiling every morning that sounds like a bowling ball?”

But when I walked through the door, I was greeted with a warm welcome from all, offered a glass of wine and a plate of food, and treated to a gossip session about all the (other) wacky neighbors which made me feel as though I lived in Stars Hollow rather than the middle of an overcrowded city with scary-high rent.

As for the galette, though it didn’t win me a free cat-sitter or solve the mystery of the loud bowling balls, it was well-loved. The crust was crisp and flaky, the apples al dente and sheathed in dulce de leche enhanced with cinnamon, chipotle, rum, and flaky salt, all topped with a plume of whipped cream.

This tart looks fancy but it’s actually way easier than making a pie. Just stir some flavorings into store-bought dulce de leche, spread it on a round of pie dough – store-bought is fine, or you can get fancy and make my gluten-free version, which I’ve streamlined to work in a food processor. Cover with sliced apples and bake. When it’s ready, slather it with more dulce de leche and serve.

And if you’re looking for another quick Thanksgiving dessert recipe, I’ve got my eye on Sarah’s latest creation. Now if only she were my neighbor…

Roll the dough between two large sheets of parchment paper, dusting it with oat flour and flipping the whole thing over as needed to prevent sticking, to make a 14-inch round that is roughly ¼-inch thick. If the dough cracks or tears, just squish it back together; it can take quite a lot of abuse. Trim the edges, then slide the parchment and dough onto a large baking sheet and chill until firm, 30 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the dulce de leche, rum, cinnamon, chipotle and salt. Chill until needed.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400ºF.

Peel, halve and core the apples and cut them into ¼ - ½-inch thick wedges. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and spread with half of the dulce de leche mixture, leaving a 2-inch border. Fan the apple slices over the dulce de leche in concentric circles starting from the outside and overlapping the slices. Drizzle the apples all over with the lemon juice and dot with the butter. Fold the edge of the dough up over the fruit to form a crust, pleating it as you go. Brush the edge of the dough with the cream, then sprinkle the crust and apples all over with the sugar.

Bake the galette until the crust is golden and the apples are bubbling, 45-60 minutes, rotating halfway through for even baking. Remove from the oven and drizzle with as much of the remaining dulce de leche as you like. Cut into wedges and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

The galette is best the day of baking while the crust is crisp, but extras will keep, refrigerated airtight, for up to 3 days.

IF ONLY WE WERE NEIGHBORS INDEED! Buy the house next door?? (Ahem, Jay, if we were neighbors, we could build a tunnel between our houses for the cats.) Also I’d devour this beautiful galette! I still have a jar of that dulce de leche in my fridge too – now I know what to do with it:)

Omg I’m laughing out loud at your neighbor party expectations. I too live in an old building and our neighbors are the ppl in the video. Lmao. And we’ve witnessed and been guilty of the exquisite domestic disputes. I can’t look my neighbors in the eye. They knew too much and so do we. I’m glad you didn’t even need this beautiful gallette to break the ice. I love dulce de leche. If you have any left over you should make alfajores. So good and gf. Have a great week.

This looks amazing and your post is perfectly timed for me. I made two batches of your gluten-free dough yesterday for a large thanksgiving apple galette. This is my first attempt at a gluten-free crust. I had to use brown rice flour (no sweet white rice flour to be found round these parts) and I swapped buckwheat for the millet since I had it on hand. I am excited to add the dulce de leche now. Thank you!

Thank you – I’ve never known what to do with dulce de leche; now I do. This recipe looks delicious and seems relatively hassle-free to make! And wonderfully seasonal.

Your description of your neighbours (and your reaction to them) made me laugh out loud. I have some stories about neighbours I’ve had over the years that would make your hair curl. Of course, they probably think the same about me :)

I don’t know which I love more, this galette or the hilarious (and totally wonderful) story behind it. I’m so embarrassed to think of what our neighbors must hear me say/do/sing LOL … so I’m thinking maybe I need one of these galettes too. Pretty sure this post is what the holidays are all about — rum-spiced dulce de leche (OMG) and heartwarming gatherings. Thank you so much for sharing, this totally started my morning off right!

This is a really beautiful looking tart. I really want to to try this just so I can have fun arranging all those apple slices into a flower like design. Oh and I’m way to scared to meet my neighbors. The things I hear from above and the hate-notes that they put on people doors – it’s best I don’t get involved. Yet it’s New York so out of all the craziness I’m sure they are actually all lovely people. Happy you braved the dreaded neighbor meet-up!

Does not this tart dough need butter? i’m a beginner in baking, so i’m a bit confused. And i saw a lot of recipes for tart that used large amount of butter. If your recipe does work without butter, that’ll be fantanstic!